Sir Richard Thompson

Immediate Past President,
Royal College of Physicians

Sir Richard trained in natural sciences and medicine at Oxford and St Thomas’ Hospital Medical School. After junior posts in London, he joined Dr Roger Williams in the early days of the liver unit at King’s College Hospital, and spent 18 months with Professor Alan Hofmann at the Mayo Clinic. In 1972 he was appointed physician and gastroenterologist at St Thomas’ Hospital until his retirement in 2005. He led an active clinical research laboratory for over 30 years, chiefly studying various aspects of nutritional gastroenterology, as well as supervising 30 MD and PhD theses, and publishing over 200 papers.

He was an examiner and censor at the RCP, sat on the Management and Grants Committees of the King’s Fund, and for 21 years was physician to HM The Queen.

He was treasurer of the RCP from 2003 until being elected president in 2010. He is a trustee of several charities, was a member of an independent monitoring board of a young offenders institute and is a member of the Ministry of Defence Research Ethics Committee.